Messed!Up
As far as French bands go, pretty much everyone’s familiar with the likes of Daft Punk, Air and Justice, and basically everything coming out of Ed Banger Records. But that’s not all there is to French music.
The country has given rise to a number of fascinating musical movements over the years, from the modern chanson of the sixties through electronic pioneers as Jean-Michel Jarre in the seventies and coldwave of the eighties, and the more recent years have seen an explosion of the French house school that’ve spread across the world like a pandemic. But there’s even more interesting music that you rarely associate France with.
In 2007 Florent Biolchini met Pauline Lopez de Ayora for the first time during college, Pauline joined Florent’s rock band, they had a quarrel but resolved everything a few years later when they reunited in Paris and started sugar-sweet indie pop act Part-Time Friends.
In 2016 they released the debut album “Fingers Crossed” on Un Plain Simple and when nothing seemed to happen Citroën threw in “Art Counter” in one of their TV commercials leading to a nationwide breakthrough for Florent and Pauline. In 2018 the sophomore album “Born To Try” was released and yet another major hit struck the world when the “made in a break” song “Streets And Stories” gained lots of attention on the scene and is today the band’s most-streamed song on Spotify.
Since the editor is very fond of sing-along indie pop he grabbed the photographer by the arm and walked down the Reeperbahn when Florent and Pauline made a stopover at Molotow.
After a show where everything ended up in chaos – the laptop controlling the electronic rhythms were smashed into pieces and the keyboard crashed on the ground but the keyboarder saved the situation by using a twenty-five-kilo synthesizer as a keytar (yeah, that was really something) – we sat down to talk about being an indie pop act in an electropop country, the struggle to get airtime in France when you sing in English and how Citroën saved the band and made the second album possible.
Making a hit song in two hours
I know the story about how you met in 2007, had some kind of a quarrel and then met in Paris a few years later which explains part of the name, but I need to ask if it also has anything to do with The Moldy Peaches song “Anything Else But You” where they actually sing “Part-time lovers and full-time friends”?
Pauline: Yes!
Florent: You’re actually the first person who gets it (laugh).
Last year your second album “Born To Try” came out, to us one of the best indie pop albums of 2018. How is it different from your debut album “Fingers Crossed”?
Florent: We really wanted to make a good album from the outset and at the same time something very different from the first one, and had a discussion about having a balance between moments of pop music and moments of rock music on the album. But basically, we just wanted to make the best songs we’ve ever made.
I also felt that I had some problems writing songs before we started on this one. When we recorded the first album we already had advanced demos ready but not this time, which was new for us and at bit more difficult to deal with in the beginning. We were in a house just the two of us and a guitar and with the goal to do something really great. In the end it was pretty easy.
Pauline: And we were also less afraid of being too much pop. The first album was a bit tricky and we were quite nervous because we had a contract with a label and wanted to prove how good we are.
Florent: We had this deal with a label and just thought “It’s the chance of our lives” and of course we didn’t want to screw it up. Today, when you look back at it, it’s just fun because they’ve always been very supportive; we were scared for nothing (laugh).
At your first album you had a big hit with “Art Counter” that got much attention but if you look at Spotify today that has been way passed by “Streets and Stories”. It has this kind of indie folk music feeling found in bands as Of Monsters And Men and The Lumineers.
Florent: And that’s quite fun because “Streets And Stories” was made in Los Angeles during a session when were supposed to write music for other artists and we’ve had that gimmick [sounding a part of “Streets And Stories”] a very long time in our heads. Everything just happened by chance; we met this Danish guy, played a small piece of the song, he re-arranged it a bit and the song was done in one or two hours
Pauline: It was done so quickly and when we listened to it we just said “We’re keeping it, we’re not giving it away” (laugh).
Florent: It was actually the first song we wrote to the second album.
But it’s not that melancholic as you’re often presented as and it doesn’t feel like that’s what the album is about.
Florent: We’re not there anymore although songs like “Glitter In My Eyes” is melancholic, but the rest of the album is not as melancholic as the first album, not at all.
How has the album been received in France considering you said that it’s a tough market at home?
Florent: “Difficult” is a polite way to say it, I would say it’s a shit market. It’s both amazing and sad at the same time because “Street And Stories” gave us a lot of attention but in France a lot of things work against us because only a few genres get through to the public.
When it comes to the album; in France people can’t even decide if we’re mainstream or an indie band. Do you think Lykke Li is mainstream or indie? Or Oasis? That’s the issue that people have, to put you in categories all the time.
Here in Germany it’s much easier. If people think we make shitty music they’ll say it and it’s not a big deal, but at least they don’t categorize us.
Pauline: So, it’s about the music, not the nation. That’s why we’re still a band (laugh).
I read somewhere that you used to be a control freak in your former bands, especially concerning the vocals and in Part-Time Friends you are two vocalists. Is writing lyrics in the studio ravaged by conflicts or do you have some kind of temporary cease fire agreement when you write lyrics?
Pauline: When it comes to write music and new songs it’s very easy actually, we never had any kind of issues with each other because we don’t have big egos. If Florent does something I don’t like, it goes to the bin and vice versa, we both have to like it. Sometimes he creates the whole song, sometimes I do it or we just put different parts together.
“The second album were not supposed to exist”
For a few years ago music radio stations in France were locked in a battle with the government over laws that force them to play a certain number of French-language songs on the airwaves. A law introduced in 1994stipulates that at least forty percent of songs played on radio stations must be in French, introduced as part of efforts to stem the encroachment of English into French culture and give a helping hand to homegrown talent.
However, in the last three years there has been a rise in the number of French artists choosing to sing in English despite quotas. Online platforms, which are used by growing numbers of young people as a medium for listening to music and which is not restricted by quotas, are also cited as a reason why English-language acts have become more popular.
Although there’s a change on the horizon it’s still tough to get through in France and get airtime.
When I think about France I often associate it with Daft Punk and everything that comes out of Ed Banger records, like Justice but how good is the scene for that kind of indie pop music you do? Well, you have indie bands as Phoenix but not much else.
Florent: Phoenix were not that big in France from the beginning but huge everywhere else, especially in the UK and America.
Pauline: They had a breakthrough in America before people knew anything about them in France – and that was very clever (laugh).
Florent: But it’s right that electronic music is very popular at the moment and of course it’s easier to get through with that kind of music in France. But in the end you need to make good music, that’s what matters.
Internationally it’s difficult to get through with your music and get attention. You have a few years of experience of how it works out, and maybe you have a recipe for how to stand the competition of too many bands on the scene?
Pauline: We were actually not supposed to do a second album because the first album didn’t do well in France.
Florent: It has never been easy for us, and I’m not saying it to sound bitter but we were not even supposed to make one album. When the first album came out the label tried really hard to get us some attention but nothing happened, but when no one thought we were going to make it the Citroën thing happened [“Art Counter” in TV commercial].
Pauline: And that’s how we did a second album and the reason for why this album is precious to us, because it wasn’t supposed to exist.
Florent: To get radio promotion you need to be part of the quota system when you sing in English. It’s not about where you produce it or who produces you, at least 40% of the songs on the radio have to be with French lyrics, and we just write in English. It’s just so stupid!
Pauline: But we never thought about it. It was not like we sat down and said “We’re starting a band, which language do we choose?”, it was just natural for us. Our influences came from bands singing in English.
And how were the reactions on the scene when you ended up in a commercial? Back in the days people would shout “Sell-outs” as soon as you did something for a brand of any kind.
Pauline: We’re very proud to have worked with Citroën because the head of marketing who picked us wasn’t like “Are they played on the radio? Are they cool? Are they good-looking? How many followers do they have on Instagram?”, he just loved the song. That was pretty ballsy.
Florent: Radio won’t do it, tour agents won’t pick an unknown act.
Pauline: But this guy did it (laugh)! He believed in us.
Florent: He approached us like “Are you doing advertisements?” and I was like “Yeah, I’ll do it and I’m going to sing it better and louder than ever for Citroën”. We’re so proud of having the opportunity to work with them.
And how did your position on the scene in France changed after the commercial?
Florent: The first time we played “Here We Are” on TV we ended up on the covers of magazines.
Pauline: And we cried, you cried like a baby (laugh).
Florent: This is what you make music for! Sometimes that kind of opportunities just appear and you really need to catch them.
Since you sing in English there’s a good opportunity to reach out to stages across Europe, or even the world. How has it worked out for you to get shows abroad?
Florent: This is actually the first real one.
Pauline: We’ve played once for Citroën who made us come for just two songs (laugh). Thank you guys for inviting us (laugh). And we even took the chance to shoot a video out of it. But this is basically the first real gig in another European country.
Much focus on Germany
While singing in English may be a hindrance to get airtime in France, it can be a help in breaking the American market, as Phoenix did with their album “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix”, which sold more than 400 000 copies. And if the future path for Part-Time Friends follow a similar direction, the market may not be France but everywhere else – maybe with a start in Germany.
I’ve gone through your tour gigs over the years and found that you haven’t done that many festival shows. Is it difficult to get booked to festivals or is it just that you prefer club shows?
Florent: It’s difficult to get festival gigs because you have to be well-known, have a name. In a way I never understand it because it’s really expensive to organize festivals and then you just put on the same bands as everyone else does. If you look at the ten biggest festivals in France they all have the same line-up.
But we have done a lot of festivals but not just during the same year. In 2017 we did Fort d’Entrecasteaux Vieux Port which is kind of a huge festival, last year year we did BSF.
What happened after the album release? Have you done a full tour yet or is it something that you plan for?
Florent: In France we’ve done a full tour, and at the moment the label work much with PR in Germany where we’ve done some radio promotion for instance, and now we’ve done Reeperbahn as well – that’s good enough at the moment.
Actually, we’re working on something that’s focused to Germany. For us it is a major chance considering Reeperbahn Festival and we just have to take it. Tonight we found an agent in Germany and he was amazed by the show and was like “If you pull it through when everything breaks down on stage you’re going to fix everything else as well. It seems like you have yourself an agent in Germany”.
I really, really want to do something here, maybe release a new song and do a proper release of the album with some bonus tracks, and later try to get an agent in Scandinavia in countries as Denmark and Sweden. It’s going to happen but we just don’t know when.
These countries understand our music much better than France and I understand music here much better than in France.
You’re right about that, I rarely here that kind of music you do coming out of France actually.
Florent: Bands like Of Monsters And Men had one song on French radio and The Lumineers became popular in France a year after they’d broke big everywhere else. But it’s all about not taking any risks in France and just releasing music they know will sell.
And we can expect you back in Germany then in two or three years for a full German tour?
Florent: I really hope so or maybe I’m just an idealist and everything will turn out in the same shitty way as in France (laugh) but at the moment it’s just a great feeling that we make good songs, and that’s more than enough for now.
Photographer: ©Julia Schwendner
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